Richard Holbrooke

HARARE, Zimbabwe - The warring sides in the Democratic Republic of the Congo agreed Saturday to meet the full Security Council in New York for further talks to bolster a ceasefire, ambassadors said. Richard Holbrooke, U.S. ambassador to the Security Council, told a news conference that the June meeting would focus on plans to disarm and demobilize combatants.

Cold comfort Many have savored the frosty authenticity that the region's recent cold snap has added to the holiday season in the Sunshine State. But for others, the plunging temperatures have only compounded their sinking fortunes. The mercury dip leaves struggling families crowding a sputtering space heater for warmth. Kids from poor families shiver on dark walks to school for want of a proper coat. Neighbors who've plunged through the safety net land at charities hoping for a stitch of something to get warm.

WASHINGTON - Bill Richardson, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, is likely to become the next energy secretary although the move is not final, officials said Thursday. Word spread that Richardson was poised to resign to move to the Energy Department. Barry Toiv, a White House deputy press secretary, said the reports ``are at the least premature and could turn out to be wrong. This decision has not been made yet.'' Richard Holbrooke, architect of the Bosnia peace accords, would be the front-runner for the U.N. job should Richardson leave, officials said.

KABUL -- The American envoy's armed convoy rumbled through Kabul's dusty streets, stopping at one polling place, then another as Afghans voted in their first contested presidential election. In the August heat, Richard Holbrooke watched the voting with a mixture of concern and satisfaction. Widespread violence had been averted, but the integrity of the election, so vital to U.S. plans, had yet to be proven. Mingling with locals while sampling pastry sold by children on a corner, Holbrooke said the process appeared "peaceful and orderly."

Q What happened to Diane Sawyer's romance with Richard Holbrooke? I read something that referred to Sawyer and her former boyfriend. Wasn't he her steady for a long time?A Yes, Diane and the State Department official were an item for years, but then she met Mike Nichols. Like many women faced with two suitors she had to make a choice. She chose Nichols and ended her relationship with Holbrooke.Q Isn't it true that Mae West owed her longevity to a weird health regimen? What about it?A Mae West lived to the ripe age of 87. She wasn't a classic beauty by any means.

JAKARTA, Indonesia - The Clinton administration is unleashing what it hopes will be a speedy diplomatic offensive to salvage the Kosovo peace proposal in an effort to avoid a repeat of the last inconclusive round of talks.The goal was to have a deal ready to sign by March 15. But officials said if that proved too ambitious, they hoped at least to have the ethnic Albanians' agreement pinned down by the time the talks are scheduled to resume next week in France. They also want to know exactly where the main obstacle to a settlement, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, stood.

SKENDERAJ, Kosovo -- NATO commanders in Kosovo say they are ready to shut down any violence in the wake of the province's expected secession from Serbia. The scorched frescoes and shattered roof tiles at the Serbian Orthodox monastery of St. Joanikije testify to how difficult that task might be. It was less than four years ago that the drowning deaths of three Albanian boys set off rioting against Serbs that ended with 19 people dead and more than 30 churches and monasteries across Kosovo destroyed or damaged.

History moves to the forefront in these new paperbacks:BACK TO THE BALKANSTo End a War, by Richard Holbrooke (Modern Library/Random House, $15.95): The chief architect of the Dayton Peace accord that ended the war in Bosnia concludes his candid account of that diplomatic roller-coaster on an ominous note: ``There will be other Bosnias in our lives.'' This book goes a long way toward explaining the wars in the former Yugo- slavia and the necessity for U.S. intervention and negotiation. If you want to know what it's like to go toe-to-toe with Slobodan Milosevic, the dynamics of the Clinton administration's foreign policy, or the lessons of the Balkans, then Holbrooke's the go-to source.

Being considered for: A top foreign-policy job, national-security adviser, deputy secretary of state. Would bring to the job: More than 45 years of foreign-policy and diplomatic experience. Is linked to Obama by: Friends. In his own words: "The world's richest nation, one that presumes to great moral authority, cannot simply make worthy appeals to conscience and call on others to carry the burden." (To End a War, Random House, 1998) Used to work as: Assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific affairs, under President Jimmy Carter; assistant secretary of state for European affairs and then U.S. ambassador to the U.N., under President Bill Clinton; vice chairman of Perseus LLC, a private-equity firm.

SKENDERAJ, Kosovo -- NATO commanders in Kosovo say they are ready to shut down any violence in the wake of the province's expected secession from Serbia. The scorched frescoes and shattered roof tiles at the Serbian Orthodox monastery of St. Joanikije testify to how difficult that task might be. It was less than four years ago that the drowning deaths of three Albanian boys set off rioting against Serbs that ended with 19 people dead and more than 30 churches and monasteries across Kosovo destroyed or damaged.

I can't imagine how I'd feel if I were the parent of a soldier in Iraq and I had just read that the Iraqi parliament had decided to go on vacation for August, because, as the White House spokesman, Tony Snow, explained, it's really hot in Baghdad then -- "130 degrees." I've been in Baghdad in the summer and it is really hot. But you know what? It is a lot hotter when you're in a U.S. military uniform, carrying a rifle and a backpack, sweltering under a steel helmet and worrying that a bomb can be thrown at you from any direction.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - Emboldened by a major battlefield triumph in what is now Africa's biggest shooting war, Ethiopia on Sunday vowed to make things still hotter by seeking out and destroying the forces of its neighbor and enemy, Eritrea. ``As long as you're going to have a neighbor like that who's going to flex his muscles when he is in a bad mood, you're in trouble,'' said Ethiopian government spokeswoman Selome Taddesse. At the same time, the specter of famine again looms over the East African region, which already has suffered two devastating episodes of mass starvation in recent history.

HARARE, Zimbabwe - The warring sides in the Democratic Republic of the Congo agreed Saturday to meet the full Security Council in New York for further talks to bolster a ceasefire, ambassadors said. Richard Holbrooke, U.S. ambassador to the Security Council, told a news conference that the June meeting would focus on plans to disarm and demobilize combatants.

History moves to the forefront in these new paperbacks:BACK TO THE BALKANSTo End a War, by Richard Holbrooke (Modern Library/Random House, $15.95): The chief architect of the Dayton Peace accord that ended the war in Bosnia concludes his candid account of that diplomatic roller-coaster on an ominous note: ``There will be other Bosnias in our lives.'' This book goes a long way toward explaining the wars in the former Yugo- slavia and the necessity for U.S. intervention and negotiation. If you want to know what it's like to go toe-to-toe with Slobodan Milosevic, the dynamics of the Clinton administration's foreign policy, or the lessons of the Balkans, then Holbrooke's the go-to source.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia - Emboldened by a major battlefield triumph in what is now Africa's biggest shooting war, Ethiopia on Sunday vowed to make things still hotter by seeking out and destroying the forces of its neighbor and enemy, Eritrea. ``As long as you're going to have a neighbor like that who's going to flex his muscles when he is in a bad mood, you're in trouble,'' said Ethiopian government spokeswoman Selome Taddesse. At the same time, the specter of famine again looms over the East African region, which already has suffered two devastating episodes of mass starvation in recent history.

KABUL -- The American envoy's armed convoy rumbled through Kabul's dusty streets, stopping at one polling place, then another as Afghans voted in their first contested presidential election. In the August heat, Richard Holbrooke watched the voting with a mixture of concern and satisfaction. Widespread violence had been averted, but the integrity of the election, so vital to U.S. plans, had yet to be proven. Mingling with locals while sampling pastry sold by children on a corner, Holbrooke said the process appeared "peaceful and orderly."

JAKARTA, Indonesia - The Clinton administration is unleashing what it hopes will be a speedy diplomatic offensive to salvage the Kosovo peace proposal in an effort to avoid a repeat of the last inconclusive round of talks.The goal was to have a deal ready to sign by March 15. But officials said if that proved too ambitious, they hoped at least to have the ethnic Albanians' agreement pinned down by the time the talks are scheduled to resume next week in France. They also want to know exactly where the main obstacle to a settlement, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, stood.

WASHINGTON - Bill Richardson, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, is likely to become the next energy secretary although the move is not final, officials said Thursday. Word spread that Richardson was poised to resign to move to the Energy Department. Barry Toiv, a White House deputy press secretary, said the reports ``are at the least premature and could turn out to be wrong. This decision has not been made yet.'' Richard Holbrooke, architect of the Bosnia peace accords, would be the front-runner for the U.N. job should Richardson leave, officials said.